motivation, here we go

The mirror replied "To whom?"

"The miller who made the flour for my bread," the queen would say, or "Whoever spun the thread my shawl was made of".

The second time, she says "To the King," and she is pleased to see herself once more.

The third time, she says "To the Royal Advisor," and is once more satisfied to see herself.

The fourth time, she says "To the scribe who takes the King's letters." She is shown the man's wife. And she seethes, but quiets herself, for it is only right that a man loves his wife.

The fifth time, she says "To the Court Wizard," and is shown the man's departed mother as he remembers her from his youth, radiant and smiling and warm and larger than life.

The tenth time, she says "To the Stable Master," and is shown the fastest horse in the stable, majestic and free as the wind even in captivity

"To the baker," she is shown the man's daughter, young and adorable and full of joy and laughter.

"To the artist who did my portrait," she is shown a painting of a woman done by the man's teacher, who he still looks up to now that he is well established himself.

"To the Royal Knight," she is surprised but not displeased to see the castle's entire guard force in the middle of doing drills.

The one hundredth time she asks the mirror, and it asks her "to whom?" she once again says, "To me." And she does the same the one hundred and second, and again and again and again.

Hot fresh grad Cody with some impressive job as like… a newscaster or a male model or some military thing… dating a bedraggled rumpled wet cat of a middle-aged Bug Scientist, and thinking this easily-distracted disaster is the hottest shit ever, while his brothers look on in absolute confusion and mild horror.

Obi-Wan can clean up nice and be this refined professor type with perfectly coiffed hair and perfectly groomed beard and perfectly pressed sweatervest combo and a perfectly cultured accent… but then he sees a rare Parasitic Worm in the bushes by the koi pond, and suddenly he’s covered in mud and bleeding and holding up this specimen with demands for a mason jar so he can get it back to a lab and see if they can get this into that one breeding program over in the university three states over.

“Demands a mason jar” u know he had collection tubes in his pockets

short form writers look at people writing 100k+ fics as though this is some sort of talent given as part of a fae bargain, that the commitment required shows some sort of ungodly mental fortitude.

Vader does go back in time

He doesn’t swear loyalty to Padme, Obi-Wan or Ahsoka

He swears absolute loyalty to Captain Rex

You are one of the Cuy'val Dar. Your job is training small clones of an old friend to be very dangerous adults. You do not like this job, but it pays well and keeps you quietly squirreled away from That One Crimelord You Pissed Off.

The Grim Reaper just blew a hole in the wall and swore loyalty to a nameless toddler.

The Kaminoan that tried to approach has been cut in half by a red lightsaber.

The entire room is full of crying children.

Fett just showed up and is being threatened by the Black Hole of a Sentient Being in the middle of the room to stay the fuck away.

The blaster shot from Dred Priest accomplished jackshit, and was in fact bounced back to kill the man.

Isabet just lost her head, literally, trying to get revenge on the absolute motherfucker in the middle of the room.

The kids are still crying, including the nameless toddler that this asshole declared his new lord and master.

Jango decides to use the shortcut “Phone a Friend”! It’s questionably effective. The “friend” is Dooku.

Dooku sees the half-assed photo of Vader threatening someone with a red saber and goes “this is obviously one of Sidious’s ploys to fuck with me and/or a competing apprentice” and decides to handle it personally. He does not call Sidious about this, because that would be losing.

Dooku gets to Kamino. Vader is intensely incomprehensible. They have a big fancy battle.

Dooku dies.

Vader is just carrying around Rex on one uncomfortably metal-clad hip this entire time. The main reason Jango’s still alive, really, is that he has babycare advice, and tells Vader things like “You should probably put some padding in that sling, your armor is hurting him” and then Vader just. Does that.

Single Dad Jango is only not dead because he has Single Dad Advice.

The Kaminoans contact the Jedi Temple about The Situation That Is Vader, who won’t fucking leave, because apparently Rex will only be happy if he stays with his brothers, and so that means Vader must stay as well.

The Jedi show up, utterly confused about many things, but generally in agreement that this is an absolutely terrible situation and probably requires a council master to handle because, like… Sith. And an army. And Fett. And Mandalorians.

There’s a lot going on, is the point, and none of it should be handled by a knight.

The Jedi in question are Mace and Plo.

Vader has a grudge against Mace but he pretends he doesn’t because that would be so passe and beneath him.

Vader does not have a grudge against Plo. He’s actually quite neutral on Plo, for Ahsoka reasons, and mostly just tells Plo to go handle children.

Plo would love to play with the kids, but Plo is here to help Mace fight a fucking Sith Lord.

The Sith Lord is not impressed. He is actually quite busy, standing dramatically in front a window and holding tiny Rex, informing him in grand phrases and sweeping gestures that the universe will be his for the taking.

(Rex is busy chewing on a toddler toy.)

Jango is ready to just throw in the towel. He signed up for a lot, but This Bullshit wasn’t it.

Everything that was broken has forgotten its brokenness. I live now in a sky-house, through every window the sun. Also, your presence. Our touching, our stories. Earthy and holy both. How can this be, but it is. Every day has something in it whose name is Forever.